CR-10 120mm Fan Base

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Thanks! I glued the two halves together with JB-Weld and added two small 4-40 screws just to make sure these never come apart. A couple of cheap 120 mm fans from Micro Center rounded out the build. I removed the two internal (non-power supply) fans and wired these to the same wiring they used to use. Very quiet now! I have the squash ball feet and this thing really rocks. The only thing left is to replace the nozzle fan, but that can wait.

I made a power supply cover that replaces the CR-10 power supply cover and helps direct airflow to the driver board above the power supply. Also, allows for repurposing the power supply internal fan power as an alarm in case the new main fans get blocked or fail:https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3276541

Midevil1: Feel free to add a link to my power supply cover in your description if you feel that it would be useful for people to know about. Totally up to you, but I doubt many people will find it here buried amoung the other comments.

The controller just sits on top of the base and can be easily removed? I find it a bit dangerous no? I am thinking of leveraging the screws on the side (going in the psu case) to fix it. Can I have a fusion 360 export file?

Does anyone know how tall the power unit stands with these? I'm trying to put my power unit under the 3D printer and I found some legs for the 3D printer but I don't think they'll clear these as well as the power unit. So I want to know how much I need to add on the legs

Question (if anyone knows):
My CR-10S4 power unit has what looks like a 5.5mm x 2.1mm male power plug connector with the other cables, similar to the 12v CCTV plugs - what is this used for? It doesn't seem to be powered; I thought maybe if it was 12V I could use this to power the fans.

This was one of the best upgrades I've performed on my CR-10S. I removed all of the stock fans and loaded this base up with a pair of Noctua NF-P12 fans and the difference is amazing. It went from a loud whoosh to a quiet whir and the interior temperature is about 3 degrees cooler.

Has anyone tried this with just one fan in exhaust mode? Thinking about blocking off the rear section, and having front blow down. Or vise versa, depending once I look inside the box again. ideally you want to pull air in through the box vents, and exhaust it, rather than blowing into the box. I'm planning to remove the 3 fans and probably the bottom plate of the psu. At 30cfm, that's basically refreshing the air in the box every 2 seconds. It's overkill for this little heater. Too bad they don't just put a 120 on top of it in the first place. It might not be as pretty, but it would ventilate very well, be very quiet, and eliminate the need for 3 fans in a box this size. Probably would have been cheaper for the manufacturer too.

I should have read the description more carefully but I've just realized that for this add-on to work properly I will have to run the CR-10 without its original metal cover. That sounds dangerous to me. :-(
Question for Midevil1 and others who have printed this. How long have you have operated your CR-10 without the bottom cover and/or the PSU cover?

I thought so too, seeing as how the power supply blocks nearly everything. In practical use though, point the back fan up and in and the front down and out and the cooling is phenomenal compared to the original 1 and a quarter inch fan.

Tried both in. The front fan fights the power supplies fan, reducing its efficiency. The power supply has its cooling fan blowing down in the front. Blow up with the stronger fan and airflow stagnant. Blow up in the rear and suck down in front. Cooling bliss!

True, but reverse that so the more powerful front fan won't slow the stock power supplies fan. Power blows down in front. Blow up there and it slows the power supply cooling. Resistance equals heat and wear. Make them work together.

So I have a friend in the computer building business that gave me a mini computer power supply and I just wired to that with a toggle switch, but others have wired direct to the control box. There are 3 fans in the control box from the factory. One plugs in to the power supply circuit board, and its controlled by temp. The other two just turn on when the control box is powered on. They are just wired to hot and ground terminals inside the case. If you back the screws out you can just add the wires to those terminals from the 120mm fans.

No, I did not dovetail them, but they are a very close tolerance so they take a little force to almost snap together, I've had not issues with them coming apart. The reverse dovetail idea is cool tho, with some clearance I bet that would work well.

At room temp of 23C, the stock fans kept the enclosure at 28-29C. With 2 120mm fans (rear blowing in, front blowing out) and removing the 3 stock fans, the enclosure temperature stay about 24-25C. I measured, it is cooler and quieter using Noctua NF-P12 fans.

When you say you removed the 3 stock fans, do you mean you removed the two controller box fans and the power supply fan too? I assume since you're saying its cooler that its fine to remove the psu fan if so?

Yes, the two control box fans and the power supply fan. I also removed the psu cover for better airflow. I've been running this set up for several months and haven't run into any heat related problems.

Sorry for the confusion, yes you'll need supports at the build plate, just not anywhere else. I printed it with the support under the fan intake area to get the fan mount area as accurate as possible. I've updated the build notes to avoid confusion in the future.

I can't hear anything from the control box any more and it stays much cooler than with the old stock fans.
None of the old fans is inside anymore and I took the power for the new fans directly from the powery supply of the box.

You can feel it with your hands touching the housing of the control box.

My fans have integrated temperature sensors. I atteched them right beside the power switch inside of the box. This is the hottest spot in the control box. The fans run with half power when temp. is below 42°C and turn up to full power when temp. reaches more than 42°C. Actually I only heard the fans turning on full power, when I heated them up with a hair dryer, just to see if they work as supposed.
In the normal printing process I never recognized that the run at full power.

Awesome thank you for your reply, where in the power supply did you take the power from? are there open spots for 12v? and did you remove the fan and cover from the power supply as well? I just purchased a pair of the fans you got, I am convinced.

Just take the power from one of the 12V slots. I think there is one open for minus, the plus you have to share with one of the existing wires.
I moved away the power supply cover in order to improve the cooling of the components inside of it.

So if connect the 12V 120mm fans to the 14V where its regulated by temperature, it will actually slow down and speed up the fans? I am just wondering if its just that simple because I dont know the reason why did you bought the bult in sensor fans?

There is no 14V connector. The power supply has 12 V and that’s where the fans are connected.
The fans I bought have a temperature sensor, that has to be attached anywhere in the power box (best where the temp. is highest). If a certain temp is reached the fans will turn faster in order to increase the cooling effect. As soon as the sensor recognizes that the temp has fallen under the limit the fans turn slower again.

Yes, I am using a separate power supply with a toggle switch. I'm not sure what kind of amperage the internal fans get from that power source. One of the internal fans is regulated by the circuit board and comes on when things warms up (the one that plugs into the board) The other two fans (the ones that go to the power and ground blocks) are on as soon as the control box switches on.

Thanks! Yes, the fan inside the power supply is regulated. I just looked up some technical data of fans of the same size as they are built in the controll box of the CR 10. In total they draw about 0.3-0.4 amps at full power. The fans I would use together with your fanbase would draw about 0.5 amps in total. So I think it's not a problem to connect the directly to the power supply of the printer.
I found some fans with a integrated temerature sensor, I guess that coud be a perfect match for the fanbase.

Very nice! So if I understand correctly, you leave the bottom plate off the control box, and "replace it", with this stand?
Did you unplug the stock (failed) fans internally or leave them plugged in since it wasn't working anyway? I'm asking because I wonder if unplugging the stock fans would throw any sort of error. Not sure how smart this controller is. :)
I'd love to quiet down my noisy control box, and I have some silent 120mm fans that I feel would do it, as long as I wouldn't be dealing with errors because of it.

Yes, I unplugged all the stock fans as they were failing and making horrible noises. No errors, its not monitoring the fans. I ended up taking the bottom plate off, as well as the lower plate of the aluminum box inside, so the 120mm fans blow direct on the electronics.

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